there have been strong debates, john kerry had a strong debate against george w. bush in 2004. but he wasn't able to translate that into lasting benefit. that's the best of the next three weeks, to see whether romney can keep it going or whether president obama comes out with a higher level of aggression, higher level of energy in the next debate and stop the momentum that romney accumulated last night. >> okay. yeah, i had so many different thoughts, john, as we watched the whole thing. i remember that a lot of republicans were supporting newt gingrich because just for this moment, they wanted -- they thought newt was such a great debater, they wanted to see someone like newt talk to president obama about his policies and about the last four years. and they thought newt would have been the guy to do it. and i don't think that the republicans now feel like they lost a step by having romney there. and in watching, i've tried to sometimes espouse free market principles, private sector language about how to approach certain things. and i got to tell you, there were a couple times